Libra 14° (October 7)

 

Awoke to a discrepancy in accounting for my series collaboration. Will be a lot of back and forth today as we sort through the disinformation, while driving back to the Cape. Boring stuff. Just want to eat pasta and get into bed early. Did Valery happen yesterday or today. Terry Kates takes the cake. Beach. So the

Absolutely no problem and sorry for being repetitive, but I wanted to include everyone you and Sophie had included originally on this thread.

I’m still a bit unclear myself about the bit about “it only coming into play when the guarantee has been broken” (I will re-read the contracts to try and get my brain around that).

From my recollection, the contract template doesn’t actually pre-date you. I thought we worked out details of contract(s) anew, after Ari left ART/Oberon—do I not have this right??

Do you also recall our going back and forth (February 2016) on agreement points in negotiating what was to be year three of the series plus the one-off summerfest??

Perhaps wording got changed in section 4 at that time and I missed that point—while ART/Oberon accounting was still used to splits being on the gross?? To be honest I can’t deconstruct the logic in this.

I do know that we have been telling artists when they ask (as they typically do)  if travel and accommodation comes off the top and we have always said “no, that this is an expense ART/Oberon kindly assumes” because that has been the case since day one, whether it was a mistake on ART’s part or not. Again, I can’t really deconstruct that bit either. All I can say is that this marks the first time I saw a change in the accounting, though I understand from your emails that Sophie was actually taking her cues rightly from the wording in the contract which we have all somehow overlooked.

I wish I could diagnose this situation. And I do of course understand that it is the same for you: that the cuts don’t always equal the investment of money. But the point is that investment takes other forms. Afterglow benefits from its association with ART/Oberon, which helps to legitimize our wee operation. And hopefully Afterglow has benefited ART/Oberon in terms of the brand of programming and the build of (new) audience that has increasingly come to see these artists at, as I say in my curtain speech, the home of Oberon in Boston/Cambridge we’ve established for them.

Artists are unused to getting less than 40% and part of the dialogue in helping them over that thinking-hump has always been two-fold. 1) That Afterglow takes its 20% to help offset time/energy that goes into creating audience and securing press and promoting (actually, as I say, it rarely ever even covers my coming to town for a show-night, such losses being totally expected and money making never being part of the reality for Afterglow); and 2) that ART/Oberon also travels and accommodates you (the artist) without it coming off the top. This has always been the pitch. And you will find it time and again in our shared correspondence with our artists.

So, not to make this another long-winded email: I suppose our contracts have always said one thing while our correspondence to the artists have always said another???? Kudos to Sophie for actually bringing this all to light where none of us have seen this discrepancy before. I appreciate your keeping things the way they are. I have always been as mindful as I can to get the audience numbers to the 100 person mark where you guys have said is the point at which you typically (at least) break even box-office-wise. Given the nature of our programming we are always going to mix in a few shows that don’t hit that mark, but hopefully compensate with shows like MGC or Lady Bunny, the more commercial and confectionary acts, that do.

As with most things, communication remains key and we should continue to verbalize our thoughts and concerns in an effort to improve the series on every level. As the little guy in the equation, Afterglow will never be financially remunerated for the work—there are no paychecks we have to write to anyone on our end, unlike with your team, which I totally understand and appreciate. Our only goal is not to lose more than we have to in the process of co-producing with you, and to make sure that ART/Oberon actually loses nothing, cash-wise. And that we all gain audience, press attention, a little acclaim, and artistic fulfillment in the process!

 

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree pointof the Sabian Symbol will be one degree higher than the one listed for today. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365 or 6 days per year—so they near but not exactly correlate.

 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go!
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